OSISA releases briefing paper calling for new approach to Zimbabwe from SADC

05 November 2009

Johannesburg, 4 November 2009

If the Southern African Development Community (SADC) does not act urgently to halt increasing militarisation in Zimbabwe and secure effective implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), there is a serious risk that Zimbabwe will slide back to the crisis levels of 2008, devolve into further widespread violence, and that real gains - in health and education - will be lost.

Ahead of the emergency summit on Zimbabwe of the SADC Security Organ, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) calls on SADC, as the lynchpin to the survival of the GPA and future progress, to adopt a new approach on Zimbabwe.

In its briefing paper, Zimbabwe: A Way Forward, OSISA calls for the deployment of a comprehensive, standing presence of SADC to be stationed in Zimbabwe until such time as a new Constitution has been drafted, that the draft has been submitted to referendum, and that free and fair presidential and legislative elections have been held. It also calls for that standing presence - comprising experts and observers -to be coupled with a pooled fund, supported by the international donor community, overseen by sector experts, to ensure that education, health care, water sanitation services and food distribution remain uninterrupted.

"Oversight of the GPA can't rest with the parties themselves", says Sisonke Msimang, executive director of OSISA. "The parties have shown themselves unable to effectively address differences relating to the GPA. That's been made clear by the most recent deadlock. SADC, as guarantor of the agreement, must now put in place mechanisms for effective oversight."

Amid credible reports of increasingly military build-up in Zimbabwe, particularly in the Mashonaland provinces - where political violence has traditionally originated - OSISA also calls for the immediate deployment of a smaller, ad-hoc delegation to monitor and report on incidents of political violence in Zimbabwe.

Says Msimang: "Despite the horrific levels of violence in 2008, we know that outside observers acted as a deterrent and saved lives. If there is to be no return to the brutality of 2008, that delegation needs to be put on the ground now."

OSISA also calls on SADC, as guarantor of the GPA, to secure, as a threshold for return to full cooperation in government, effective implementation of the GPA and a definitive resolution of the outstanding issues as per the SADC communiqué of 26-27 January 2009.

"If the GPA can't be rescued, it will be a colossal failure for SADC", says Msimang. "The proposals OSISA has made are ambitious, but there is ample precedent for them and they're in line with observer missions that have been deployed in the past - for instance, the UN Observer Mission in South Africa from 1992 to 1994. If SADC doesn't alter its approach, there is the real prospect of a return to crisis and more suffering for Zimbabweans."

Issued by: Beachhead Media & Investor Relations

On behalf of: The Open Society initiative for Southern Africa

Further info:

Ozias Tungwarara
+27 11 587 5000/ +27 83 611 6383

Itai Zimunya
+27 11 587 5000/ +27 82 600 0570

Nicole Fritz
+27 11 587 5000/ +27 82 600 1028

Download "Zimbabwe - The Way Forward" [PDF 48.5KB]